British GP Rumblings: Why Sunday's Race Was a Rarity For The Wrong Reasons

            Oh how a little bit of rain can change things in the world of Formula One. Sure, Lewis Hamilton winning wasn’t a great shock, but Rubens Barrichello making the podium in a Honda (that’s right… a Honda), Kimi Raikkonen finishing a lap behind, and Felipe Massa possibly setting a record for spins in a race (not too sure about that mark) certainly all were. For sure, this was the wildest and most memorable race of this season, both for the on-track craziness and for the most amount of passing I’ve seen since Barrichello’s win in Germany back the year 2000!

            It is this type of competition and excitement that has been missing from Formula One races not held in the rain (minus a handful of exceptions). When the “narrow track” cars and the grooved tires were introduced back in 1998, the goal was to create racing akin to that in the wet; the changes would reduce mechanical grip (grip generated independently from aerodynamics) and, supposedly, would give the drivers’ skill more prominence in the race. Races wouldn’t be so dependant on the cars anymore (even though Damon Hill managed to nearly win the ’97 Hungarian Grand Prix, prior to the “narrow track” rules, in an Arrows: hardly the best car of that year’s grid.).

            Fast forward to a decade later, and the master plan has backfired immensely as the engineers have had to find ways to make up for the lost mechanical grip. The result: All of those aerodynamic enhancements and winglets we see on the cars today. Sure, they cut through the air much better, evidenced by the fact they are going nearly as fast smaller V-8 engines as they ran with the larger, more powerful V-10 lumps. At the same time, that improvement brings with it a negative

            The cars need air flowing over them in order run properly. Once a car gets behind another, it becomes super difficult to pass due to the decrease in air flowing over that trailing car, with the exception being when the trailing car is significantly faster. Even still, it takes several laps for that car to pass (see Kimi Raikkonen getting stuck behind Barrichello’s Honda for a few too many trips around the Melbourne circuit this year). Plus, with many tracks having high speed corners and fewer legitimate overtaking areas, passing in a normal dry race is about as rare an intelligent and lucid statement coming from Paris Hilton. Okay, so passing isn’t quite that rare, but you get the point.

            Yes, Sunday’s race was very exciting and had a lot of on-track action. However, exciting on-track action in a Formula One race has become the exception rather than the norm. Other than the occasional race that sees a fast car placed at the back because of extenuating circumstances (such as Heikki Kovalainen in Turkey), races will go the entire distance with only one or two passes. Sure, that can be slightly attributed to cars being closer to each other in performance, but that shouldn’t mean they can’t follow each other closely. Because of the regulations put in place a decade ago, the cars, and the drivers piloting them, have great difficulty following each other through corners.

            The sheer lack of passing we see now in Formula 1 in simply unacceptable. While it is the engineers who are responsible for designing the cars with those aerodynamic winglets, I don’t see them being at fault. The parameters of the rules mean they can’t design the cars to generate more mechanical grip. So, they have to figure out ways to make the cars as fast as possible, and have to go the aerodynamic route, leading to the aforementioned overtaking problems. For that, I blame Mr. Ecclestone, Mr. Mosely, and everyone else who makes the rules for Formula 1.

Sunday’s race certainly had me quite enthused and intrigued. Whenever rain enters the picture, you know things are going to get a little chaotic. And that’s exactly why Sunday’s race should be a rarity: for the cars spinning, for torrential rain, for the jumbled field at the end…FOR THE CHAOS! However, it will also be viewed as a rarity because of the higher amounts of passing. I think that is a sad indictment on current Grand Prix racing and something that is in dire need of fixing. Maybe the new regulations coming next year will change that. I, for one, sincerely hope so; an exciting Formula 1 race should not be solely dependant on the small chance of rain or safety car periods occurring. And for the time being, it is.